CHAPTER IV

RAW MATERIALS

MEASURE your raw materials accurately for every batch. Have your color, flavor, salt, butter, etc., put up in bottles or wax paper, the measured quantity for each batch, and thus maintain uniform quality. Buy these of a Confectioners’ Supply House.

=Pop-Corn.=--Use only the best, for in the end that is cheapest at any cost. That does not mean that you must pay high prices, nor that high prices assure the best quality. You must judge the quality of the goods by testing them.

Write the E. R. Knott Machine Company for a list of Pop-corn dealers.

Use the best of White Rice Pop-Corn. Secure samples from the dealers and test them in your popper for quality in size of popped kernels, for quantity popped from a scoopful, for length of time it takes to pop, for the amount of waste or unpopped kernels.

Pop-corn of one year’s crop should not be used before the next June and pop-corn from that crop should be used up by the following June. The corn maintains its popping quality best by being kept on the cob, so that corn ought not to be shelled long before it is popped.

Pop the day’s supply of corn the same day you intend to use it.

Use the best. Keep your barrels covered and clean.

=Corn Syrup= is used not only because it is cheaper than sugar but principally to prevent the candy from graining. The amount of dextrine in it will have a direct effect upon the graining results. Corn syrup varies in the amount of dextrine it contains, ranging from zero per cent. to forty per cent. Twenty-five per cent. at least is required in corn syrup in order to use it with sugar and stop graining, that is, to prevent the syrup from turning back to sugar. Too great a proportion of corn syrup will cause the candy to be tough.

For various kinds of goods and for the same goods in different seasons and climates you will vary the proportion of corn syrup.

You must experiment with the materials that you have available, but you may take this as a basis to start from: seventy-five per cent. of sugar and twenty-five per cent. or less of corn syrup. This will grain and not be sticky or tough, and you may use water on your tools to prevent sticking.

Seventy-five per cent. of sugar and twenty-five per cent. or more of corn syrup will not grain.

Wet your hand before picking up corn syrup so that it will not stick. This method works well in cold weather, but in warm weather use a dipper or let the corn syrup run out of the barrel.

Butter and Substitutes.

Nothing will spoil the quality of your goods so quickly as a low quality of butter. Exercise great care to see that the butter is fresh, pure and sweet. Put the butter into your candy in the kettle with your syrup.

There are substitutes for butter that may be used in some goods with good results, but be careful, for the keeping quality of the goods is important, as well as the taste when freshly made. Many a business has been a failure because quality was neglected. Quality means freshness, appearance, keeping value, wholesomeness, and the power to stand heat or cold.

Salt.

Some brands of salt create chemical action and the result is poor goods. Do not use any low-grade salt.

Use salt every batch. Most candy and pop-corn makers do not use enough salt.

Molasses.

Different grades of molasses will give different flavors to the product. “New Orleans” is good. After once adopting a grade be sure to hold to it and not disturb your trade by radically changing the flavor of your goods. Molasses is graded by its sugar content.

Water.

This does not receive the attention which it should.

You know that the chemical analysis of water from two local situations, not to mention water from distant points, often varies widely. Therefore, water certainly has considerable to do with the quality of your candy.

Some manufacturers do not use water in their recipes because they say it all has to be boiled out and that the chemical action is not good.

Cream of Tartar.

Cream of tartar is used to prevent the sugar returning to sugar or graining, as it is called. A cream of tartar killed batch is short and dry.

Soda.

Soda used with molasses makes the candy a lighter color by generating gas, which expands it.

Colors and Flavors.

The pure food law requirements must be followed and you can secure from your supply dealer the right articles.

=Color.=

You may add your coloring to the batch in the kettle on the fire. Put up in measured amounts beforehand just what you want to use in your batches, then all batches will be alike.

=Flavor.=

Use the best. By putting it into small bottles, each containing enough for a batch, your goods will all be alike.

Raisins.

There are several styles of raisins to be had; seeded and seedless, and of course, several brands of each. Don’t consider using raisins with seeds in them, as these will not please your trade. Try the different kinds to be found in your local market.

Not enough raisins is better than too many.

Nuts.

Peanuts are to be preferred to other kinds of nuts for mixing with pop-corn. Use the small, well-cleaned, roasted entire nuts with whole or medium ground pop-corn. The small quantity of nuts will make the separate pieces stand out and one poor nut spoils the appearance of the cake and box. A bad nut will make a customer refuse your brand.

Peanuts broken up or ground to the size of half a pea is suggested as one good way to use them.

Cocoanut.

Care must be exercised in the purchase of cocoanut to see that you are getting quality. Cocoanut may be had either grated, shredded, thread and sliced.

Chocolate.

Use the bitter cake-chocolate and cut it up into small pieces.

Paper.

Crispette wrapping paper is eleven inches long by twelve inches wide. The best paper we know of for this purpose is a forty pound manila wax paper, seventy sheets to the pound. Have it printed at the mill before it is waxed, otherwise the printing will fade, or rub off. A good method is to use a large type label to put inside to show through the plain waxed paper.

Bricks are wrapped in wax paper, size 9 × 12 inches wide, and then a blue paper band with your name upon it is put around to hold the wax paper in place. The wax paper weighs one hundred and twenty-eight sheets to the pound.

Bars are wrapped in wax paper measuring 7 × 16 inches. One hundred and ninety sheets to the pound.

Layer paper, to be put into the boxes between unwrapped pop-corn, may be had. Grade forty pound manila comes in sheets 24 × 36 inches, or cut to the size you want. Twelve sheets 24 × 36 inches weigh one pound. Write E. R. Knott Machine Co. for a list of Wax Paper Makers.

Boxes.

The size of your box must be determined by what you want to put in it.

Penny goods are packed 50, 72, 100, 144, etc., in a box; five-cent package goods 20, 24, 50, 100 in a box.

Buy your boxes of some local supply.

If that is not possible, buy your boxes flat from the nearest convenient maker and use a Corner Box Stitcher to put them together.

Boxes take up less storage space. You make them up as you need them. Boxes are stronger. Other pop-corn manufacturers find this the best way, so you should investigate the method.

Tin Cans.

Cans, with covers to keep out moisture or the cover put on with a piece of wax paper under it, to exclude moisture, may be used to good advantage by a retailer to protect his stock or by the manufacturer in order to insure the keeping qualities of his corn in the retailer’s hands.

Cases.

Cases for shipping boxes of pop-corn may be made of corrugated paper or fiber board. Use that which is the cheaper in your own locality.

Crates made of wood may be the best method for your shipping.

Put 10, 12, 20 or 24 boxes in a case or crate.